Systems and methods for activity measurement around pop displays with wireless beacons

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for using wireless beacons in point of purchase (“POP”) displays to facilitate the delivery of consumer oriented content to mobile devices is disclosed herein. One or more sensors may be coupled to the POP display to assess external activity around the POP display. The external activity may be recorded, stored in a memory associated with the POP display, and transmitted to a remote server at a selected time.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This patent claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.62/160,949 to Walden, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLYTRANSMITTING CONTENT TO A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER”, filed May 13, 2015; U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 62/256,248 to Walden, entitled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY TRANSMITTING CONTENT TO A POTENTIALCUSTOMER”, filed Nov. 17, 2015; and U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 62/291,828 to Walden, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLYTRANSMITTING CONTENT TO A POTENTIAL CUSTOMER”, filed Feb. 5, 2016, eachof which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully setforth herein.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to the use of wireless beacons inpoint of purchase (“POP”) displays to facilitate the delivery ofconsumer oriented content to mobile devices. Certain embodiments relateto systems and methods for activity measurement using sensors andwireless beacons on POP displays. Additionally, some embodiments relateto systems and methods for data transfer related to activitymeasurement.

2. Description of the Relevant Art

POP (“point of purchase”) displays are often used in retail environmentsto display content for particular products associated with the POPdisplays. POP displays typically include signs, graphics, or othermarketing materials that communicate information about associatedproducts and are intended to draw a shopper's (e.g., customer's)attention to the products associated with the displays. POP displays maybe used as integral components for marketing or promotional campaigns.POP displays often contribute to the success of these campaigns.

Traditional POP display signage, which runs the gamut from a simpleplastic holder for a card with product information to illuminatedtranslucent graphic films in an atmospheric light box, are static innature and are unable to customize the information conveyed to apotential customer based upon the customer's interest level. Otherconventional POP display signage may include video displays that offerlimited interactive options. Thus, there is a need for POP displays thatare capable of dynamically interacting with potential customers. Themanufacture, distribution, and/or deployment in retail settings ofmultiple POP displays, however, poses unique challenges, especially whenthe ability to dynamically interact with potential customers is includedwith the POP displays. Developments in mobile device technology andmobile communication technology allows for dynamic interaction withpotential customers in retail environment.

Beacons are among the most important new mobile technologies helpingmerchants engage with consumers via mobile communication while theconsumers are in brick and mortar stores. For many years, near fieldcommunication (NFC) was considered to be the technology that woulddeliver such data to retailers and help them track how customers behavein-store. NFC, however, has reached certain limits and beacons (andbeacon technology) provides increased potential for providing customerengagement to shoppers in store environments.

Beacons may be low-cost devices that communicate with mobile device(e.g., smartphone) apps through a Bluetooth signal. Beacons are expectedto directly influence over $4 billion worth of US retail sales this yearat top retailers (0.1% of the total), and that number may climb tenfoldin 2016. Current beacon implementations are relatively crude andtypically broadcast the same, static content (e.g., a coupon, regardlessof circumstances or a potential customer's demonstrated intent). Beacontechnology has enormous potential to enhance the shopping experience.For example, beacon technology may make it quicker and easier forcustomers to access the information and products they are looking for orprovide special offers or discounts to loyal shoppers. Beacon technologycan also provide retailers with invaluable data about their customers'shopping habits as well as the activity of their staff. Thus, retailersmay make improvements to the store layout by identifying store flow,maintaining service standards, and maintaining operations that willbenefit both customer and retailer. Current implementations of beacontechnology, however, have failed to develop a more dynamic set ofinteractions with potential customers, particularly those which arebased on and distinguish between various location-based actions.

There has been some development in the use of beacon technology in store(customer) environments, however, the implementation of beacontechnology remains limited.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0287045, filedApr. 6, 2015 by Brown et al., which is incorporated by reference as iffully set forth herein, describes a “system for monitoring compliancewith a retail display program includes a beacon coupled to a promotionaldisplay structure.” The system includes a “computing device [that] isconfigured to compare the location-specific data and time stamp to thespecified retail facility and time period to determine whether thepromotional display structure is displayed in the specified retailfacility during the specified time period.” The system in Brown,however, requires that “Each promotional display structure 20 isintended to be displayed at a specified retail facility 50. Moreover, inthe example embodiment, each promotional display structure 20 isintended to be displayed at a specified location 60 within specifiedretail facility 50.” Thus, the system of Brown requires that theintended location of each “promotional display structure” be knownbefore the display structures are sent to their locations so thatcompliance of the structure (e.g., is it displayed in the correctlocation) may be determined. However, as is known in the art ofpromotional displays, it can often be very difficult and cumbersome toensure and know the intended locations of promotional displays. Forexample, a large set of identical promotional displays are often sent toa warehouse for storage before being randomly sent out to retaillocations without any thought being given as to the intended locationfor each specific promotional display. Further, multiple locationswithin a retail location may be intended for a given display once itreaches the retail location.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0282620, filedMar. 15, 2013 by Nuovo et al., which is incorporated by reference as iffully set forth herein, states: “detecting an advertised deviceidentifier and comparing the detected device identifier with deviceidentifiers stored on the mobile device. If there is a match, the matchcan trigger an event. The event can be requesting content associatedwith the matched device identifier, receiving the requested content, andrendering the received content. The requested content can be selected tohave additional, corresponding content downloaded and rendered.” Thisidentification is done by “an application that operates on a mobiledevice. When executed, the application can cause the mobile device tosearch for device identifiers, e.g., media access controller addressesand/or broadcast identifiers (IDs), which are advertised by wirelessbeacon units, such as WiFi beacon units and Bluetooth beacon units.”

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0176388 filed Mar.19, 2002, by Rankin and Simons, which is incorporated by reference as iffully set forth herein, describes a centralized system for updatingbeacons. The system includes “a modification to the Bluetooth system toenable the connectionless broadcast of short messages from Bluetoothbeacons. This can be achieved by exploiting the Bluetooth Inquiry phaseby extending the very short ID packet sent out during this mode andusing the extra space thus gained to carry a small amount ofinformation. This information can be Bluetooth system related data orone-way application data. This scheme has the potentially useful featureof being backwards-compatible with legacy Bluetooth devices that are notable to understand this extra field.”

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0183004 filed Mar.15, 2002, by Fulton et al., which is incorporated by reference as iffully set forth herein, describes specialized beacons that are dedicatedto either inquiries or transmitting information to a client.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0254670, filed May1, 2006, “System and method for optimizing throughput in a wirelessnetwork,” by Kawaguchi and Le, which is incorporated by reference as iffully set forth herein, discusses throttling bandwidth within a meshnetwork. For example, “When the switch 10 determines that a selectedmesh node is utilizing a portion of the bandwidth outside of thepredetermined threshold range, the switch 10 executes a predeterminedaction (e.g., throttling) on transmissions from the selected node toprovide increased bandwidth to mesh nodes further from the switch 10than the selected node.”

WIPO Patent Application WO/2013/054144, “Method of Estimating thePosition of a User Device Using Radio Beacons and Radio Beacons Adaptedto Facilitate the Methods of the Invention” by Usman, et al., which isincorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, disclosesmethods for “calculating an estimate of the position of the user devicetaking into account transmit power data concerning the transmit powerlevel of the one or more said radio beacons . . . ” Page 2, lines 16-18.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,571,279, issued to Herz et al., which is incorporated byreference as if fully set forth herein, discloses location basedservices, but more from the perspective of a cellular network. Itstates, “The operation of the location enhanced information deliverysystem as described herein makes use of the fact that each user has a‘beacon’, which generally serves as a user identificationinstrumentality. The beacons emit identifiers which can be used toassociate users with the detected devices. The beacon can be correlatedwith location, such as by use of a wireless subscriber station or othersystems with known technology.”

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2014/0358666,“Cross-Channel Personalized Promotion Platform,” by Baghaie and Dempski,which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein,describes a platform for allowing advertisers to purchase promotionalopportunities on user's mobile devices.

United States Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0315839,“Analyzing Audiences at Public Venues,” by Mumcuoglu and Engel, which isincorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, discusses theuse of wireless signals to physically locate a user but does not discussthe utilization of that information in real time to transmit pertinentinformation to that user.

Despite the previous disclosures described above, there remains manyneeds related to the concepts of adjusting or “throttling” a connection(or a transmission), determination of bumping, or the notions of pushingor pulling content beyond generic downloading of specific content from acentralized server as discussed herein. In addition, there is still aneed for monitoring surrounding activity and assessing user locationsand/or display locations. In certain applications, transmissions (orconnections) may need to be throttled with respect to a specificlocation (e.g., a point of sale). In some applications, there is a needfor the content transmitted over that connection to be varied inrelation to either the throttling or determined range. Thus, there arestill improvements needed in the application of beacon technology toengage with customers during their in-store shopping experience and forsupporting customers' in-store shopping experiences.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In certain embodiments, context aware solutions are provided fordelivering content to potential customers in an efficient manner inassociation with POP (“point of purchase”) displays that are used inretail environments. Embodiments disclosed herein include wirelessbeacon technology associated with the POP displays that can vary thecontent delivered based upon the relative distance of the potentialcustomer and whether the potential customer has indicated any productinterest. This allows for content to be “throttled” to potentialcustomers based on a software configuration that exempts customers whohave not signaled interest from being included in messages that mightoverload and/or annoy the customers and/or trigger privacy concerns dueto unrequested content. Potential customers that have signaled interest,however, may receive content without any throttling. Furthermore,embodiments disclosed herein may distinguish between “push”—use caseswhere content is provided without an intentional request by thecustomer—and “pull”—use cases where content has been intentionallyrequested by the customer through a physical interaction between the POPdisplay and a customer device (e.g., the customer device being “bumped”,i.e., intentionally placed in close proximity to an area on the POPdisplay). The exact information that is pushed or pulled may be locatedon a remote server that may be configured for each potential use case.Embodiments disclosed herein may provide implementations that conservepower by allowing devices (e.g., wireless beacons) to be configured toactivate at a later date, namely after they have arrived at a certaindestination (e.g., a display location). Embodiments disclosed herein mayprovide for utilizing context awareness to reduce power consumption whenit is unlikely for a potential customer to be around (e.g., when aretail area is dark or no activity is detected). Furthermore, thiscontext awareness may enable manufacturing and distributions methods tobe suited to large-scale production and distribution of POP displaysacross many locations. Improved logistical schemes for manufacturing anddistributing the embodiments disclosed herein may also be provided sinceone need not determine beforehand the exact final location of the POPdisplay and its beacon before distribution to individual retail oradvertising venues.

In certain embodiments, the disclosed systems and methods include avariety of sensors to aid in assessing a proximity of potentialcustomers to the POP display and measuring the surrounding environment.This information may be recorded and analyzed to gain additionalinsights about consumer behavior and to gauge the device's performance.Additionally, information may be inferred from the signal strength ofuser devices (e.g., mobile devices) carried by potential customers. Thisinformation may also be retained and analyzed. In some embodiments, thesystem may transmit data to a server through various means. For example,a traditional permanent gateway may be utilized, or user devices withnetwork connectivity that are carried by employees or potentialcustomers may be utilized to relay the stored information to the server.

Embodiments disclosed herein may provide efficient means forcommunicating with individuals, either to inform or to advertise, and torecord information about the disclosed embodiments' performance and itsenvironment. In some embodiments, the recorded information is harnessedto enable improved logistical schemes to be provided for manufacturingand distributing the disclosed embodiments even when it is unknown whereand/or when the disclosed device will be delivered and/or beginoperation.

In certain embodiments, an apparatus includes: a processor; a memory; awireless beacon, wherein the wireless beacon is configured to broadcasta wireless signal, the wireless signal including a data packet, andwherein the data packet includes a unique identifier for the wirelessbeacon; and one or more sensors configured to assess external activityaround the apparatus; wherein the apparatus is configured to be coupledto a point of purchase (POP) display including a consumer productdisplay, the POP display being configured to be deployed at a retaillocation.

In certain embodiments, a method includes: broadcasting a wirelesssignal from a wireless beacon, the wireless beacon being located on acircuit board coupled to a point of purchase (POP) display including aconsumer product display, wherein the circuit board includes a processorand a memory, wherein the POP display is located at a retail location,and wherein the wireless signal includes a data packet, with a uniqueidentifier for the wireless beacon; assessing external activity aroundthe wireless beacon using one or more sensors coupled to the circuitboard; recording external activity information based on the assessedexternal activity; storing the external activity information in thememory on the circuit board; and transmitting the external activityinformation to a remote server.

In certain embodiments, a non-transient computer-readable mediumincluding instructions that, when executed by one or more processors,causes the one or more processors to perform a method that includes:broadcasting a wireless signal from a wireless beacon, the wirelessbeacon being located on a circuit board coupled to a point of purchase(POP) display including a consumer product display, wherein the circuitboard includes a processor and a memory, wherein the POP display islocated at a retail location, and wherein the wireless signal includes adata packet, with a unique identifier for the wireless beacon; assessingexternal activity around the wireless beacon using one or more sensorscoupled to the circuit board; recording external activity informationbased on the assessed external activity; storing the external activityinformation in the memory on the circuit board; and transmitting theexternal activity information to a remote server.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features and advantages of the methods and apparatus described hereinwill be more fully appreciated by reference to the following detaileddescription of presently preferred but nonetheless illustrativeembodiments when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a point of purchasedisplay system.

FIG. 1A depicts an example of an embodiment of a POP display.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram representation of an embodiment of aninteraction between a customer device, wireless beacons, and a server.

FIGS. 3A-3K depict examples of content being displayed on a display of amobile device.

FIG. 4 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of a method to assess alocation of a wireless beacon and its POP display.

FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of a method used to assess alocation of a POP display.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of a second embodiment of a method used toassess a location of a POP display.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart of a third embodiment of a method used toassess a location of a POP display.

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart of a fourth embodiment of a method used toassess a location of a POP display.

FIG. 9 depicts a flowchart of a manufacturing supply chain associatedwith POP displays.

FIG. 10 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of a plurality of pointof purchase displays at a retail location.

FIG. 11A illustrates an example of a campaign calendar.

FIG. 11B illustrates an example of an interface displaying variousstatistics related to POP display deployment and sales.

FIG. 11C illustrates an information screen related to the productassociated with the POP display.

FIG. 11D illustrates an interface displaying national deploymentinformation for POP displays.

FIG. 11E illustrates an interface displaying state deploymentinformation for POP displays.

FIG. 11F illustrates an interface displaying supply chain information.

FIG. 11G illustrates an interface displaying a sales analysis associatedwith the POP display.

FIG. 12 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of an exemplarycomputer system.

FIG. 13 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of a computeraccessible storage medium.

While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to limit the disclosure to theparticular form illustrated, but on the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within thespirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appendedclaims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes onlyand are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description. Asused throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissivesense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatorysense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,”and “includes” mean including, but not limited to. Additionally, as usedin this specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”,“an”, and “the” include singular and plural referents unless the contentclearly dictates otherwise. Furthermore, the word “may” is usedthroughout this application in a permissive sense (i.e., having thepotential to, being able to), not in a mandatory sense (i.e., must). Theterm “include,” and derivations thereof, mean “including, but notlimited to.” The term “coupled” means directly or indirectly connected.

The term “automatically” refers to an action or operation performed by acomputer system (e.g., software executed by the computer system) ordevice (e.g., circuitry, programmable hardware elements, ASICs, etc.),without user input directly specifying or performing the action oroperation. Thus the term “automatically” is in contrast to an operationbeing manually performed or specified by the user, where the userprovides input to directly perform the operation. An automatic proceduremay be initiated by input provided by the user, but the subsequentactions that are performed “automatically” are not specified by theuser, i.e., are not performed “manually”, where the user specifies eachaction to perform. For example, a user filling out an electronic form byselecting each field and providing input specifying information (e.g.,by typing information, selecting check boxes, radio selections, etc.) isfilling out the form manually, even though the computer system mustupdate the form in response to the user actions. The form may beautomatically filled out by the computer system where the computersystem (e.g., software executing on the computer system) analyzes thefields of the form and fills in the form without any user inputspecifying the answers to the fields. As indicated above, the user mayinvoke the automatic filling of the form, but is not involved in theactual filling of the form (e.g., the user is not manually specifyinganswers to fields but rather they are being automatically completed).The present specification provides various examples of operations beingautomatically performed in response to actions the user has taken.

Various units, circuits, or other components may be described as“configured to” perform a task or tasks. In such contexts, “configuredto” is a broad recitation of structure generally meaning “havingcircuitry that” performs the task or tasks during operation. As such,the unit/circuit/component can be configured to perform the task evenwhen the unit/circuit/component is not currently on. In general, thecircuitry that forms the structure corresponding to “configured to” mayinclude hardware circuits and/or memory storing program instructionsexecutable to implement the operation. The memory can include volatilememory such as static or dynamic random access memory and/or nonvolatilememory such as optical or magnetic disk storage, flash memory,programmable read-only memories, etc. The hardware circuits may includeany combination of combinatorial logic circuitry, clocked storagedevices such as flops, registers, latches, etc., finite state machines,memory such as static random access memory or embedded dynamic randomaccess memory, custom designed circuitry, programmable logic arrays,etc. Similarly, various units/circuits/components may be described asperforming a task or tasks, for convenience in the description. Suchdescriptions should be interpreted as including the phrase “configuredto.” Reciting a unit/circuit/component that is configured to perform oneor more tasks is expressly intended not to invoke 35 U.S.C. § 112(f)interpretation for that unit/circuit/component.

In an embodiment, hardware circuits in accordance with this disclosuremay be implemented by coding the description of the circuit in ahardware description language (HDL) such as Verilog or VHDL. The HDLdescription may be synthesized against a library of cells designed for agiven integrated circuit fabrication technology, and may be modified fortiming, power, and other reasons to result in a final design databasethat may be transmitted to a foundry to generate masks and ultimatelyproduce the integrated circuit. Some hardware circuits or portionsthereof may also be custom-designed in a schematic editor and capturedinto the integrated circuit design along with synthesized circuitry. Theintegrated circuits may include transistors and may further includeother circuit elements (e.g. passive elements such as capacitors,resistors, inductors, etc.) and interconnect between the transistors andcircuit elements. Some embodiments may implement multiple integratedcircuits coupled together to implement the hardware circuits, and/ordiscrete elements may be used in some embodiments.

The scope of the present disclosure includes any feature or combinationof features disclosed herein (either explicitly or implicitly), or anygeneralization thereof, whether or not it mitigates any or all of theproblems addressed herein. Accordingly, new claims may be formulatedduring prosecution of this application (or an application claimingpriority thereto) to any such combination of features. In particular,with reference to the appended claims, features from dependent claimsmay be combined with those of the independent claims and features fromrespective independent claims may be combined in any appropriate mannerand not merely in the specific combinations enumerated in the appendedclaims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following examples are included to demonstrate preferredembodiments. It should be appreciated by those of skill in the art thatthe techniques disclosed in the examples which follow representtechniques discovered by the inventor to function well in the practiceof the disclosed embodiments, and thus can be considered to constitutepreferred modes for its practice. However, those of skill in the artshould, in light of the present disclosure, appreciate that many changescan be made in the specific embodiments which are disclosed and stillobtain a like or similar result without departing from the spirit andscope of the disclosed embodiments.

In this patent, certain U.S. patents, U.S. patent applications, andother materials (e.g., articles) have been incorporated by reference.The text of such U.S. patents, U.S. patent applications, and othermaterials is, however, only incorporated by reference to the extent thatno conflict exists between such text and the other statements anddrawings set forth herein. In the event of such conflict, then any suchconflicting text in such incorporated by reference U.S. patents, U.S.patent applications, and other materials is specifically notincorporated by reference in this patent.

Further modifications and alternative embodiments of various aspects ofthe disclosed embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the artin view of this description. Accordingly, this description is to beconstrued as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching thoseskilled in the art the general manner of carrying out the disclosedembodiments. It is to be understood that the forms of the disclosedembodiments shown and described herein are to be taken as examples ofembodiments. Elements and materials may be substituted for thoseillustrated and described herein, parts and processes may be reversed,and certain features of the disclosed embodiments may be utilizedindependently, all as would be apparent to one skilled in the art afterhaving the benefit of this description of the disclosed embodiments.Changes may be made in the elements described herein without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the disclosed embodiments as described inthe following claims.

This specification includes references to “one embodiment” or “anembodiment.” The appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “inan embodiment” do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, althoughembodiments that include any combination of the features are generallycontemplated, unless expressly disclaimed herein. Particular features,structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable mannerconsistent with this disclosure.

As used herein, the word “display” is intended to include an array ofmerchandising materials and store-based assets such as, but not limitedto, signs, test product or samples, permanent or semi-permanentfixtures, coupon dispensers, aisle-based video screens, mobile coolers,or other movable assets within a retail outlet.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of point of purchase(“POP”) display system 100. In certain embodiments, system 100 includesPOP display 102. In certain embodiments, circuit board 104 is located onPOP display 102. Circuit board 104 may be, for example, a printedcircuit board or any other suitable circuit board for connecting andoperating multiple electronic components including, but not limited to,integrated circuits. Circuit board 104 may be placed (installed) on, orcoupled to, POP display 102 during or after manufacturing of the POPdisplay.

In certain embodiments, circuit board 104 includes battery 106, switch108, memory 110, controller 112, wireless beacon 114, and sensors 116.In certain embodiments, controller 112 includes circuitry, an integratedcircuit, or a processor operable to control operation of wireless beacon114 and/or other components of circuit board 104 and/or POP display 102.Memory 110 may include many different types of memory known in the artfor use on a circuit board. For example, memory 110 may be flash memory,RAM, EEROM, EEPROM, and/or one-time programmable memory.

In some embodiments, controller 112 is coupled to clock 113. Clock 113may be capable of tracking both date and time. Clock 113 may beassociated with wireless beacon 114 to provide time information (e.g.,date and time) to the wireless beacon. In some embodiments, clock 113 islocated in a chip on circuit board 104. In some embodiments, clock 113is located in a microprocessor in wireless beacon 114.

In some embodiments, circuit board 104 includes unique label 117. Uniquelabel 117 may be added during or after manufacturing of circuit board104. Unique label 117 may be, for example, a printed label, such as a QRlabel or barcode, that can be viewed or electronically scanned foridentifying information. Unique label 117 may include a uniqueidentification for circuit board 104 that differentiates the circuitboard from other circuit boards that may be used on other POP displays.For example, each circuit board 104 may have its own identificationnumber that specifically identifies the circuit board.

POP display 102, as described herein, may be any display that holdsproducts and/or advertises products. For example, POP display 102 mayinclude signs, graphics, or other marketing materials that communicateinformation about a product to a consumer. FIG. 1A depicts an example ofan embodiment of POP display 102. In some embodiments, POP display 102includes the product itself. For example, products such as, but notlimited to, demo units of electronic items, appliances, and/or rugs maybe a POP display. POP display 102 is typically placed next to or nearthe merchandise the display is promoting and/or included as part of themerchandise. In some embodiments, POP display 102 is utilized to hold,support, or display products associated with the POP display. In certainembodiments, POP display 102 is a corrugated cardboard display. POPdisplay 102 may also include displays made from materials such as, butnot limited to, paper, paperboard, bristol board, foam cored board,plastic, or any other material suitable for holding and/or advertisingproducts.

POP display 102 may be a component of a marketing or promotionalcampaign. In certain embodiments, POP display 102 is generally locatedin a retail environment (e.g., a retail store) or any other locationwhere a customer purchases product or a decision to purchase product ismade. In some embodiments, POP display 102 is placed in other displaylocations in order to drive potential customers to a specific area. Forexample, POP display 102 may be placed in a window display and used toprovide (e.g., “beam”) promotional information to people as they pass byoutside a retail store. Regardless of the location of POP display 102,the POP display may be intended to draw the customer's attention toproducts associated with the display. These products may, in someembodiments, be new products, products on sale, and/or productsassociated with a special offer. POP display 102 may also be used topromote special events (e.g., seasonal or holiday-time sales).

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, POP system 100 includes theuse of customer device 118. Customer device 118 may be, for example, amobile device. Customer device 118 may be a small computing device,typically small enough to be handheld (and hence also commonly known asa handheld computer or simply handheld). Mobile devices may be any ofvarious types of computer systems devices which are mobile or portableand which perform wireless communications using WLAN communication.Examples of mobile devices include mobile telephones or smart phones(e.g., iPhone™, Android™-based phones), and tablet computers such asiPad™, Samsung Galaxy™, etc. Various other types of devices would fallinto this category if they include Wi-Fi or both cellular and Wi-Ficommunication capabilities, such as laptop computers (e.g., MacBook™),portable gaming devices (e.g., Nintendo DS™ PlayStation Portable™,Gameboy Advance™, iPhone™), portable Internet devices, and otherhandheld devices, as well as wearable devices such as smart watches,smart glasses, headphones, pendants, earpieces, etc. In general, theterm “mobile device” can be broadly defined to encompass any electronic,computing, and/or telecommunications device (or combination of devices)which is easily transported by a user and capable of wirelesscommunication using WLAN or Wi-Fi. In certain embodiments, customerdevice 118 includes any device used by a customer with display 119(e.g., an LCD screen or touchscreen), one or more wireless transceivers(e.g., wireless transceivers 120A, 120B, shown in FIG. 1), softwarepackage 122, and memory cache 124. Display 119, in some embodiments,includes a user interface for customer device 118 (e.g., the displayallows interactive input for the user).

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 on POP display 102 interactswith customer devices 118 carried by potential customers. Wirelessbeacon 114 may be configured to interact with customer devices 118through wireless transceiver 120A. In certain embodiments, wirelesstransceiver 120A is a Bluetooth Low Energy (“BLE”) transceiver.

In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 includes a unique identifierassociated with the wireless beacon. The unique identifier may bebroadcast by wireless beacon 114, received through wireless transceiver120A, and used to identify the wireless beacon (e.g., the uniqueidentifier may be used by a server to identify the wireless beacon asdescribed herein). Thus, in embodiments with multiple wireless beacons114, the wireless beacons broadcast their respective unique identifiersand the unique identifiers may be used to identify and/or differentiatethe wireless beacons and, by extension, the circuit board and POPdisplay associated with each wireless beacon.

Wireless beacon 114 may be a transponder sending data via radio signals.In certain embodiments, wireless beacon 114 is a Bluetooth Low Energy(“BLE”) beacon. A Bluetooth LE beacon may operate in either peripheralor central mode, depending on the circumstances, though in certainembodiments, the beacon may default to peripheral mode. Chipsetsimplementing beacon functionality may be commercially available. Twonon-limiting examples are the Texas Instruments CC2541 and CC2600. Thedisclosed embodiments, however, do not depend on the particular choiceof Bluetooth chipset.

Bluetooth low energy (Bluetooth LE, BLE, also marketed as BluetoothSmart) is a wireless personal area network technology designed andmarketed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group aimed at applicationsin the healthcare, fitness, beacons, security, and home entertainmentindustries. Compared to Classic Bluetooth, Bluetooth Smart is intendedto provide considerably reduced power consumption and cost whilemaintaining a similar communication range.

Bluetooth Smart was originally introduced under the name Wibree by Nokiain 2006. It was merged into the main Bluetooth standard in 2010 with theadoption of the Bluetooth Core Specification Version 4.0. In certainembodiments, wireless beacons 114 are Bluetooth LE beacons. Bluetooth LEbeacons may be used, at least in part, because Bluetooth LE has beenwidely adopted in customer devices 118 (e.g., mobile devices). Thus, apotential consumer may likely already have the requisite hardware tointeract with circuit board 104 and POP display 102. For example,Bluetooth LE has been built into iPhones and iPads since 2010, and manyAndroid devices since 2013. Bluetooth LE wireless beacons are also, asthe name implies, energy efficient, which may be an importantconsideration for technology deployed on mobile devices. In certainembodiments, the positioning and data transmission capabilities ofBluetooth LE are also of use, though the embodiments disclosed hereinmay also be implemented using other wireless standards, including thevarious versions of IEEE 802.11.

In certain embodiments, POP display system 100 includes server 126.Server 126 may communicate with customer device 118 through wirelesstransceiver 120B on the customer device. In certain embodiments,wireless transceiver 120B is a WiFi-enabled or cellular transceiver.Server 126 may include content 128. In certain embodiments, content 128is uploaded to server 126 via an exposed API (Application ProgrammingInterface). Content 128 may be included as part of a storage structureor storage management system (e.g., a database) accessible by server126. For example, content 128 may be stored in a database in anaccessible memory of server 126. In certain embodiments, content 128includes information that corresponds to advertising, marketing, and/orpromotional campaigns associated with POP displays 102. For example,content 128 may include, but not be limited, campaign start times,campaign time periods, campaign locations, coupons associated with thecampaign, advertising and/or marketing associated with the campaign, andpromotions associated with the campaign.

As server 126 includes content 128, the server may be referred to as a“content server”, though the phrase “content server” as used in thisdisclosure should not be considered strictly limiting. In someembodiments, the physical server(s) (e.g., server 126) that storescontent 128 may perform other functionality and/or work in conjunctionwith other servers to enable some or all of its functionality. Forexample, server 126 may work with a load balancing server to optimizeits communications load over a network or authentication servers tovalidate the entities requesting a download of content. In someembodiments, server 126 may operate in a distributed nature such thatcontent 128 is distributed over more than one physical storage device orlogical drive partitions. The term “content server” is intended toencompass all of these scenarios and any other that one of ordinaryskill in the art would contemplate in implementing the disclosedfunctionality.

In certain embodiments, server 126 includes information 130. Information130 may be included as part of a storage structure or storage managementsystem (e.g., a database) accessible by server 126. Information 130 mayinclude information regarding POP display 102 and wireless beacon 114such as, but not limited to, the unique identifier, location information(if known), and retail location information for the POP display (e.g.,store location information for a specific retailer associated with thePOP display). In some embodiments, information 130 includes informationrecorded from sensors 116 and/or other components on POP displays 102 aswell as information recorded on customer devices 118 that is transmittedto server 126.

In certain embodiments, SDK (“Software Developer Kit”) 125 is located insoftware package 122 on customer device 118, as shown in FIG. 1. SDK 125may allow programmers to develop applications (e.g., mobile application127) for customer device 118 that interface the customer device withserver 126 and circuit board 104. SDK 125 may abstract low levelimplementation details of POP display system 100 and simplify thedevelopment of software applications compatible with the disclosedembodiments. In certain embodiments, SDK 125 includes functionality tofacilitate accessing APIs exposed by server 126 (e.g., the contentserver) as well as wireless (e.g., Bluetooth) mediated interactions withwireless beacons 114.

In certain embodiments, mobile application 127 is located in softwarepackage 122 on customer device 118. Mobile application 127 may becoupled to SDK to allow the mobile application to interface and utilizefunctions of the SDK. In some embodiments, SDK 125 may be embedded inmobile application 127 (e.g., the SDK is a software code element of themobile application). Mobile application 127 may be, in some embodiments,a retailer “app” or other mobile application written for interactionbetween a customer and a specific retailer (e.g., the mobile applicationmay be a customer loyalty app specific for a selected retailer). Incertain embodiments, mobile application 127 provides an interactiveinterface for the customer through customer device 118. For example,mobile application 127 may use display 119 as a user interface (thedisplay is a touchscreen) to allow interactive customer input or themobile application may use the display in combination with another inputsystem (e.g., a keyboard or voice input) to allow interactive customerinput. In certain embodiments, mobile application 127 utilizes SDK 125,when run on customer device 118, to detect that the customer device isin proximity to a compatible Bluetooth LE beacon (e.g., wireless beacon114), as described herein.

In certain embodiments, SDK 125 is configured to receive measurementsfrom customer device 118 through built-in features of the customerdevice. For example, SDK 125 may receive measurements fromaccelerometer, gyroscope, compass, audio, light, or Near FieldCommunication measurements on customer device 118. These measurementsmay be utilized to increase the accuracy of calculated locationinformation or used to infer additional information about either a useror an environment of POP display 102. For example, information from anaccelerometer on customer device 118 may be combined with otherinformation to increase the accuracy of detection of “bumps” orrecognition of gestures as described below.

In some embodiments, the measurements received by SDK 125 are sent toserver 126 and stored in information 130. Server 126 may integrate themeasurement information from customer device 118 to increase accuracy oflocation information and/or infer additional information, as describedbelow. In some embodiments, server 126 may integrate the measurementinformation with information from external data sources, which may belocated in information 130 on the server. For example, server 126 mayintegrate store specific information from nearby beacons, geolocationinformation provided by a retail loyalty application on connected mobiledevices, or other information received from third party sources.

In certain embodiments, POP display system 100 utilizes wireless signalstrength to infer distance between customer device 118 and POP display102. POP display system 100 may utilize this distance information tomodulate and/or control the particular information conveyed to thecustomer through customer device 118. In certain embodiments, SDK 125 insoftware 122 on customer device 118 receives information, based ondistance, indicating the detection of “bumps” or “pulls” (e.g., when auser physically touches (or very nearly so) the customer device againsta designated area of POP display 102 (e.g., at or near a “tap devicehere for more information” designated area)). In the disclosedembodiments, the concept of bumping is applied as a way for a user toexpress interest in POP display 102 independent of any technicalrequirements of the underlying wireless communication protocol beingused.

Various techniques may be utilized to estimate distance between customerdevice 118 and POP display 102. For example, in certain embodiments,Received Signal Strength Indication (“RSSI”) values of Bluetooth signalsare measured and analyzed to infer distance. The distance inferred maybe relative or absolute in nature (e.g., the technique may only specifya distance from POP display 102 as opposed to exact position). By meansof illustration, the general relationship between RSSI value anddistance is approximately RSSI[dbm]=−(10×n×log₁₀(d)−A), where d is thedistance and A is the offset which is the measured RSSI value 1 meterpoint away from the Bluetooth LE device. Again, this is provided simplyfor illustrative purposes and other relationships and formulas may beutilized by the disclosed embodiments to infer location informationabout the customer device and, by extension the customer. Other examplesof values that may be utilized to determine signal strength include, butare not limited to, packet loss ratio or rate, header error check,cyclic redundancy check, and forward error correction. Furthermore, themeasurement of these various values, including RSSI, may be implementedin numerous ways in hardware. For example, one may utilize Goertzelalgorithms to derive signal strength values from a series of transceiverpower measurements. As shown above, the precise implementation detailsof the measurement to calculate location information can vary and theembodiments disclosed herein may be suited to the usage of anymeasurement to calculate location information. Furthermore, locationrelated information (e.g., signal strength measurements, values derivedfrom signal strength measurements, identifiers associated with aparticular mobile device, timestamps associated with a signal strengthreading) may be saved to a memory (e.g., memory 110 or memory cache 124)for future review and/or analysis. In some embodiments, the locationrelated information includes information about customer device 118. Forexample, the information may include information about chipsets,antennas, and/or an operating system of customer device 118. Theinformation about customer device 118 may be part of the future reviewand/or analysis to increase accuracy in assessing relative locationinformation of the customer device and POP display 102.

In certain embodiments, signal strength (e.g., Bluetooth signal strengthas measured, for example, via RSSI) between POP display 102's wirelessbeacon 114 and wireless transceiver 120A on customer device 118 ismonitored and, if it surpasses a predefined threshold or “trigger”level, it is inferred that the customer has “bumped” the customer deviceagainst the POP display and has made a “pull” delivery request (e.g.,the user has indicated his/her intention to receive or “pull” contentassociated with the POP display). In certain embodiments, the predefinedthreshold is set at a signal strength level that indicates that the userhas clearly intended to initiate a “bump” or “pull” with POP display102. For example, the predefined threshold may be set at a signalstrength level that clearly defines customer device 118 hasintentionally been placed on or near to the designated area of POPdisplay 102 by the customer. In some embodiments, the predefinedthreshold is combined with other information (e.g., information from anaccelerometer on customer device 118) to define intent of the customerin “pulling” for content. For example, accelerometer data may becombined with the predefined threshold (measured via RSSI) to recognizea gesture (e.g., movement of customer device 118 in an intentional way)made by the user that indicates intent of the customer to receiveinformation.

In certain embodiments, the predefined threshold improves thereliability of bump detection and the threshold may be dynamic innature. For example, the threshold may be specified by a formula thataccounts for certain variables rather than a set static number. In someembodiments, the algorithm may not allow a new bump to be registereduntil the signal is outside of a separate threshold, usually higher invalue than the entrance threshold. This restriction may help to preventspurious bumps. Additional techniques may be utilized to improve bumpdetection (such as a filter to smooth RSSI values). In some embodiments,signal profiles for setting the predefined threshold are associated witha type of customer device 118 (e.g., a type of mobile device or a typeof antenna used in the mobile device). Server 126 may receive type datafor customer device 118 when the customer device is in contact with theserver. Server 126 then may send RSSI signal profiles associated withthe type data to the SDK on customer device 118, which stores the signalprofiles in memory cache 124 for accessing in assessment of bumpindications.

Some embodiments may utilize different methods for gauging distance. Forexample, other performance measures associated with a Bluetooth signal,RSSI values associated with a 802.11 WiFi signal, information from aNear Field Communication signal, etc. may be used. Regardless of theorigin and type of information used, the associated algorithms mayutilize the information to detect bumps. In some embodiments, thedetection of bumps is performed in circuit board 104 rather than oncustomer device 118.

Bumping may be used to signal that the customer is explicitly requestingdigital content (e.g., requesting content to be display on display 119of customer device 118). In the event that a bump is detected, the SDKmay provide content to the customer on customer device 118 (this may bereferred to as “pull” delivery). For example, content may be display ondisplay 119 through mobile application 127. The content may includecontent stored in memory cache 124, which includes content 128previously received from server 126 as described herein. Conversely,“push” delivery may occur in the absence of a bump, where content 128may be delivered by server 126 to customers that have not explicitlyrequested content. In certain embodiments, unsolicited push content isthrottled to prevent from overloading the customer with unrequestedcontent, while pull content (e.g., requested content) is not throttled.In some embodiments, the exact throttling scheme used is configurable bysoftware and may be specified by various entities. For example, theexact throttling scheme may be specified by a POP display owner, aretailer, an advertising company, a manufacturer of goods or servicesassociated with the POP display, etc.

In some embodiments, a throttling scheme is personalized for aparticular user. For example, the throttling scheme may includepersonalized data based on a persona of the user. The personalized datamay be uploaded to and/or stored in memory cache 124 on customer device118. The persona of the user may include categories based on one or moreuser preferences. The preferences may be for categories that includenon-specific information about the user (e.g., anonymous informationbased only on the behavior of the user). Using non-specific informationmay protect privacy and security of the user of customer device 118. Insome embodiments, the persona of the user is defined by preferencesspecified by a retailer (e.g., through a retailer app in SDK 125 oncustomer device 118).

Information relevant to the throttling scheme may be incorporated inseveral aspects of the disclosed embodiments. First, content 128 may beuploaded to server 126 via an exposed API (Application ProgramInterface) designed to work with the overall device ecosystem. This APIrequires that the uploaded content be associated with information thatallows server 126 to associate content 128 with specific beacons (e.g.,wireless beacon 114). The API may also require information associatedwith the uploaded content that will allow customer device 118, via anAPI call, to determine if the content should be served up based on pushor pull.

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, POP display 102 includessensors 116. Sensors 116 may provide monitoring of activity in and/oraround the POP display. In certain embodiments, sensors 116 includeproximity sensors that detect activity in the vicinity of POP display102. Proximity sensor may detect activity based on, for example, heat,light (reflected infrared and/or visible light), sound, and/or images.Examples of sensors 116 include, but are not limited to, ambient lightsensors, passive infrared sensors, active infrared sensors, and imagebased detection sensors. Other examples include accelerometers,temperature sensors, weight sensors, cameras, and sensors that detectwhen a product has been dispensed or when a display needs to berestocked.

Sensors 116 may be used to measure and record (and, in some embodiments,timestamp in combination with clock 113) activity around the display andsave these measurements in memory 110. These measurements and recordingsmay provide information that can be used for detailed analysis of thelevel of traffic around POP display 102 by time. The analysis mayinclude determining information such as, but not limited to, how manypeople walk past the display, how many people stop to look at thedisplay, when a door is opened, how long the door is opened, and whetherproducts are removed. Such analysis may include measuring the timing ofthe activity, such as how long a potential customer stood in front ofthe display, commonly referred to as dwell time. Other potentialanalyses include, but are not limited to, how many shoppers passed by(divided into buckets of time), the average dwell time per shopper,and/or counts of shoppers that had smartphones (customer devices 118)equipped with software package 122. Measurement data from sensors 116stored in memory 110 may be transmitted (broadcast) in data packets sentout by wireless beacon 114. The data packets with the measurement datamay be received by, for example, customer devices 118 and/or networkgateway 710 to then be transmitted to a remote server (e.g., server126).

In certain embodiments, sensors 116 include a proximity sensor thatmonitors activity only within a defined range (e.g., a defined distance)from POP display 102. Sensor data may also be used in a transmissionthrottling scheme as described herein (e.g., a particularly crowdedstore might dictate the use of a different transmission). Additionally,as described herein, the connection between wireless beacons 114 and/orcustomer devices 118 may be utilized to share information between POPdisplays 102.

In certain embodiments, information recorded from sensors 116 and/orother components on POP displays 102 as well as information recorded oncustomer devices 118 is transmitted and stored in server 126 asinformation 130. Information recorded on customer devices 118 mayinclude any information or data relating to interactions between thecustomer devices and wireless beacons 114, interactions between thecustomer devices and server 126, other interactions involving thecustomer devices, and data obtained by the customer devices such asdevice sensor data (e.g., position and/or movement measurement data)and/or application data from the software package. In some embodiments,recorded information may be stored in memory cache 124 on customerdevice 118 before being transmitted to server 126. The recordedinformation stored in memory cache 124 may include information recordedon customer device and/or information recorded from sensors 116 on POPdisplays 102 (after the data is transmitted to the customer device viawireless beacon 114). In some embodiments, proximity sensor data is usedby server 126 along with position information obtained through wirelesstransceiver 120B on customer device 118 to improve the accuracy ofdetermining location information (e.g., location information related tolocation of wireless beacons and POP displays).

In certain embodiments, it may be desirable to only allow wirelessbeacons to broadcast when there is activity near the wireless beacon.Allowing wireless beacons to only broadcast with nearby activity mayallow a large number (e.g., high density) of wireless beacons to belocated in a single retail location as not all of the wireless beaconswill be actively broadcasting at the same time. In certain embodiments,one or more sensors 116 are used in combination with wireless beacon 114to allow the wireless beacon to operate in a low power(non-broadcasting) mode while located in a retail location and onlyactively broadcast when nearby activity is detected. For example, sensor116 may be a proximity sensor that detects activity within a selecteddistance from wireless beacon 114. When no activity is detected bysensor 116 (e.g., there is an absence of activity), wireless beacon 114may enter a low power (sleep or non-broadcasting) mode. In the low powermode, wireless beacon 114 does not respond or provide push/pull events,described herein, as the wireless beacon is not broadcasting any datapackets. If sensor 116 detects any activity (e.g., via proximitydetection of a customer/user), wireless beacon 114 may be switched to anactive (broadcasting) mode substantially instantaneously. Wirelessbeacon 114 may then be active for any push/pull events or contentrequests associated with customer device 118.

In some embodiments, POP display 102 includes other sensors 116 thatprovide additional measurements. For example, sensors 116 may include anaccelerometer that is used to detect when product is added or removedfrom POP display 102. As another example, POP display 102 may be mountedon a door such as a freezer case door found in a grocery store. Theaccelerometer on POP display 102 may be used to detect when the door isopened and closed. This information may be correlated with otherinformation to determine, for example, how many people walk past thedisplay, how many people stop to look at the display, how long a personlooks at items displayed in the freezer before opening the door, howlong the door is opened, and whether products are removed from thefreezer. Yet another example is a light sensor may be used to determinewhen the display was unpacked and when the store is opened or closed (asdescribed below, this may be used to determine the actual deploymentrate for a set of POP displays). Many POP displays are never deployedand the use of sensors 116 may allow tracking of POP display deploymentand addressing such deployment issues based on the deploymentinformation collected.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram representation of an embodiment of aninteraction between customer device 118, wireless beacons 114, andserver 126. In certain embodiments, customer device 118 receives firstBluetooth LE packet 700 from first wireless beacon 114A. First wirelessbeacon 114A may be, for example, a wireless beacon located at or near aretail entrance (e.g., a store entrance). In certain embodiments, firstwireless beacon 114A is located in an area where customer device 118 isable to communicate with server 126 (e.g., the customer device haswireless connectivity (either through WiFi or cellular transmission withthe server). Upon receipt of first Bluetooth LE packet 700, SDK 125 mayinspect memory cache 124 and determine if the memory cache containsup-to-date data (content) for first wireless beacon 114A. If the contentis not up-to-date in memory cache 124, then SDK may contact 702 server126 (e.g., the content server) and retrieve 704 the latest content(e.g., content 128) associated with first wireless beacon 114A. Theretrieved content may be stored in memory cache 124.

In some embodiments, server 126 may be aware of the location of firstwireless beacon 114A and/or other wireless beacons (identifiable bytheir unique identifiers) associated with the first wireless beacon. Theother wireless beacons (e.g., second wireless beacons 114B, shown inFIG. 2) may be other wireless beacons that are nearby first wirelessbeacon 114A. In certain embodiments, second wireless beacons 114B arewireless beacons that are located in the same store as, or in proximityto, first wireless beacon 114A. In some embodiments, second wirelessbeacons 114B are wireless beacons in other stores at other locationsthat are associated with the particular venue of first wireless beacon114A (e.g., the beacons are associated with a single retail chain).

Knowing the association between first wireless beacon 114A and secondwireless beacons 114B, server 126 may, therefore, transmit the latestcontent for the second wireless beacons in addition to transmitting thelatest content for the first wireless beacon. The content for both firstwireless beacon 114A and second wireless beacons 114B may be stored inmemory cache 124. Transmitting the latest data for second wirelessbeacons 114B may improve customer device 118 user's experience asinformation for each subsequent wireless beacon encountered may alreadybe on the customer device and accessed immediately as the subsequentbeacons are encountered (e.g., when SDK 125 receives second Bluetooth LEpacket 706 from the second wireless beacons). This may be particularlyadvantageous in areas where there is limited or no data connectivity(e.g., where it would otherwise be impossible to download the contentassociated with a newly encountered wireless beacon). For example, whencustomer device 118 enters a store and detects first wireless beacon114A, the customer device may automatically download the latest contentassociated with all second wireless beacons 114B in the store and storethe content in memory cache 124 rather than incrementally downloadingcontent as the customer device encounters each second wireless beacon.Incremental downloading may be slower and/or may not be possible as onewanders deeper into a physical structure and customer device 118 loseswireless network connectivity (e.g., enters cellular deadspots withinthe structure). Again, SDK 125 manages this functionality and, from theperspective of mobile application 127, the SDK notifies the mobileapplication of push and pull events (described herein) as well asdelivering any associated content from memory cache 124 to the mobileapplication. Mobile application 127 may then display content from memorycache 124 to the customer on display 119. FIGS. 3A-3K depict examples ofcontent being displayed on display 119. In some embodiments, display 119allows the customer to interact with content displayed by mobileapplication 127 (e.g., the content may include a menu of options forselection by the customer).

An additional advantage of SDK 125 is that the SDK may transmit toserver 126 location information available from customer device 118 aboutthe customer device's location along with the unique identifier receivedfrom wireless beacon 114. In some embodiments, the location informationis sent to server 126 when a request for content is made from theserver. In certain embodiments, location information about the locationof customer device 118 includes GPS data (such as latitude/longitudedata) from the customer device (e.g., using built-in GPS on the customerdevice). In some embodiments, location information about the location ofcustomer device 118 includes detected WiFi networks (e.g., WiFi networksaccessed by the customer device). In some embodiments, mobileapplication 127 provides SDK 125 with the location of customer device118 (e.g., the mobile application may tell the SDK which storeassociated with the mobile application at which the customer device islocated). The location information of customer device 118 along with theunique identifier from wireless beacon 114 may allow server 126 toidentify the physical or retail location (e.g., a specific store numberfor a retail chain) of the wireless beacon having the unique identifier.

FIG. 4 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 800. Method 800may be used to assess a location of wireless beacon 114 and POP display102. In 802, a plurality of POP displays 102 and their wireless beacons114 may be associated with a selected campaign. As described herein, a“campaign” refers to an advertising, a marketing, or a promotionalcampaign associated with a particular retail product or a grouping ofproducts associated with one campaign. For example, the campaign may bea special sale for a limited time for the particular retail product. Insome embodiments, the campaign is associated with specific retailers,specific stores within a retail chain, and/or specific geographiclocations. In some embodiments, the campaign has a selected time periodassociated with the campaign (e.g., the campaign is active for aselected amount of time).

In some embodiments, associating wireless beacons 114 with the selectedcampaign in 802 includes associating the wireless beacons with aselected campaign associated with a specific retailer. For example,wireless beacons 114 may be designated for a specific advertisingcampaign intended for a specific retailer. In 804, the wireless beaconsmay be randomly distributed to a plurality of retail locations. Eventhough the selected campaign may be known for wireless beacons 114, theexact final location of POP displays 102 with the wireless beacons istypically unknown (as described below for step 314 in FIG. 9). Thus,each of the retail locations that receive the randomly distributed POPdisplays 102 may be associated with the same selected campaign.

After POP displays 102, along with wireless beacons 114, are placed attheir intended locations and the wireless beacons are activated (e.g.,activated at either their final display location or a temporary storagelocation such as a store back (or storage) area), one or more differentmethods may be used to assess a retail location of each of the POPdisplays (e.g., the store at which each POP display is located). Forexample, as shown in FIG. 4, method 806A, method 806B, method 806C, andmethod 806D may each be used, either alone or in combination, to, in808, assess the retail location of a selected POP display 102 andwireless beacon 114. Methods 806A, 806B, 806C, 806D may be used toassess the retail location of multiple POP displays 102. In someembodiments, one method may be used to assess the retail location of allthe POP displays associated with the selected campaign. In someembodiments, one method may be used to assess the retail location of afirst POP display while another method is used to assess the retaillocation of a second POP display, a third POP display, a fourth POPdisplay, etc.

FIG. 5 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806A used toassess a location of a POP display. Once POP display 102 is placed at aretail location (e.g., in 804, shown in FIG. 4), method 806A may be usedto assess the retail location of the POP display using interaction withcustomer device 118 and SDK 125 on the customer device. In 900, customerdevice 118 may receive a packet (e.g., a data packet such as packet 700,shown in FIG. 2) from wireless beacon 114. The packet may include theunique identifier for wireless beacon 114.

In 902, SDK 125 may combine the received unique identifier along withgeographic information on the location of customer device 118. Forexample, the geographic information may include the geographic locationof customer device 118 such as, but not limited to, latitude andlongitude location or GPS location of the customer device. In 904, SDK125 may then provide the geographic location of customer device 118along with the unique identifier to a remote server (e.g., server 126,shown in FIGS. 1 and 2). In some embodiments, a time stamp from customerdevice 118 is also provided to the remote server. In certainembodiments, SDK 125 provides unique identifiers for a plurality ofwireless beacons along with the geographic location of customer device118.

In 906, the remote server may then assess or determine the retaillocation of wireless beacon 114 with the unique identifier using thegeographic location information provided along with the uniqueidentifier. If multiple unique identifiers are sent to the remoteserver, the remote server may determine the retail location of each ofthe wireless beacons with the unique identifiers associated with thegeographic location information. The determined retail location may be,for example, a retail store number associated with a retail chainassociated with the selected campaign. In some embodiments, the retaillocation is determined using the geographic location in combination withother information available to the remote server, including, but notlimited to, information from other customer devices and/or informationabout retail locations associated with the selected campaign. In someembodiments, the remote server assesses the time stamp received from SDK125 in combination with the geographic location of customer device 118,the unique identifier, and the retail locations associated with theselected campaign. Assessing the time stamp may allow the remote serverto assess if the POP display is active during a selected time periodassociated with the selected campaign for the POP display.

Information from other customer devices may include, but not be limitedto, geographic location information from interaction of other customerdevices with the wireless beacon. Thus, in some embodiments, the remoteserver may use information from multiple customer devices to determinethe retail location of a wireless beacon. The information about retaillocations associated with the selected campaign may be provided to theremote server or obtainable by the remote server using information inputearlier about the selected campaign. In some embodiments, the remoteserver stores the retail location information along with the uniqueidentifier in a database (e.g., information 130 on server 126, shown inFIG. 1).

The retail location determined in 906 may be provided to method 800,shown in FIG. 4, to either be used as the assessed retail location in808 or used in other methods (e.g., 806B or 806C) to determine theretail locations of other POP displays. In some embodiments, the retaillocation determined in 906 may be used to assess if the location of thePOP display and the wireless beacon has changed. For example, the remoteserver may look up the unique identifier and assess if a previouslocation for the unique identifier was recorded to assess if any changein location has occurred.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806B used toassess a location of a POP display. Method 806B may include assessingthe retail location of POP display 102 and wireless beacon 114 using thepresence of other detected wireless beacons (POP displays) with knownretail locations in proximity to the wireless beacon and interactionwith one or more customer devices 118. In some embodiments, multiplewireless beacons are interacting with a single customer device 118(e.g., the single customer device receives packets from multiplewireless beacons at or around the same time). In some embodiments, thewireless beacons are interacting with multiple customer devices 118 ator around the same time with a remote server receiving information fromthe multiple customer devices (with knowledge of the customer devicesbeing at the same location).

As shown in FIG. 6, method 806B includes determining, at the remoteserver, a retail location of a first POP display in 910. The retaillocation of the first POP display may be determined, for example, usingmethod 806A, shown in FIG. 5, method 806C, shown in FIG. 7, or method806D, shown in FIG. 8. Determining the retail location of the first POPdisplay in 910, as shown in FIG. 6, allows the remote server to know theretail location of the first POP display. In some embodiments, theretail location of the first POP display may be known and provided tothe remote server in 910 (e.g., a separate entity or applicationprovides the retail location of the first POP display or the retaillocation the first POP display is to be sent to is known before beingsent to the location). In some embodiments, the same retail location isdetermined (and then known) for multiple POP displays in 910 (e.g., thesame retail location may be determined (and then known) for two or morePOP displays). The remote server may associate together the multiple POPdisplays at the same retail location.

After the location of the first POP display(s) is determined (or known)in 910, customer device 118 may receive a first data packet (or a set offirst data packets for multiple POP displays) with the unique identifierfor the first POP display(s) in 912. At or around the same time,customer device 118 may receive a second data packet from a second POPdisplay in 914. The second POP display may have a retail location thatis unknown to the remote server. The second data packet may include theunique identifier for the second POP display.

In 916, SDK 125 on customer device 118 may provide the unique identifierfor the first POP display(s) and the unique identifier for the secondPOP display to the remote server (e.g., server 126, shown in FIGS. 1 and2). In 918, the remote server may determine, based on the remote serverreceiving both the unique identifier for the first POP display(s) andthe unique identifier for the second POP display at the same time, thatthe second POP display is at the same retail location as the first POPdisplay(s). Put another way, the remote server determines that thesecond POP display is at the same retail location as the first POPdisplay(s) because the remote server receives both unique identifiersfrom the same customer device, which is at the retail location. Theretail location of the second POP display determined in 918 may beprovided to method 800, shown in FIG. 4, to be used as the assessedretail location in 808.

In some embodiments, the remote server may receive the unique identifierfor the first POP display(s) and the unique identifier for the secondPOP display from different customer devices in 916 (e.g., two or moredifferent mobile devices). In such embodiments, however, the remoteserver may receive other identifying information (e.g., geographiclocation information or specific content related information) thatallows the remote server to associate the unique identifier for thefirst POP display(s) with the unique identifier for the second POPdisplay and determine that the POP displays are at the same retaillocation in 918.

FIG. 7 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806C used toassess a location of a POP display. Method 806C may include assessingthe retail location of POP display 102 and wireless beacon 114 usingcommunication with a network gateway located at the retail location. Incertain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 2, network gateway 710 is locatedat retail location 200. Multiple network gateways 710 may be installedat known retail locations for interfacing with POP displays after thePOP displays are distributed and reach the retail location. For example,network gateways 710 may be permanent network gateways installed at eachretail location in a retail chain or supply chain with the location ofeach network gateway being known. Thus, for POP display distribution,the retail locations of multiple network gateways 710 are known by theremote server.

Network gateway 710 may be a wireless network gateway. For example,network gateway 710 may be any hardware (e.g., a processor and one ormore wireless antenna) capable of networked communication over one ormore wireless communication networks and/or interfacing between wirelesscommunication networks (e.g., interfacing between a local area network(LAN) and a wide area network (WAN)). Communication networks mayinclude, but not be limited to, WANs cellular networks, wirelessnetworks, and the Internet. In certain embodiments, network gateway 710is connected to the Internet and is capable of interfacing andcommunicating using Bluetooth LE, WiFi, sub-gigahertz radio, cellular,and other longer-range radio bands.

In embodiments with network gateway 710 using sub-gigahertz radio,wireless beacons 114 may be capable of broadcasting over sub-gigahertz(or another longer-range radio band) in addition to Bluetooth LE.Sub-gigahertz broadcasting may provide increased range of datatransmission as compared to Bluetooth LE (e.g., sub-gigahertz may have atransmission range of up to about a mile). Sub-gigahertz broadcastingmay include, for example, broadcasting over the ISM band (UHF). In someembodiments, however, other longer broadcast range (and detection range)radio bands may be used instead of sub-gigahertz radio bands. Forexample, broadcast radio bands such as, but not limited to, WiFi, LORA,or ZigBee may be used in wireless beacons 114 and/or network gateway710. In certain embodiments, wireless beacons 114 are equipped with acommunication chip (e.g., wireless transceiver 120A) capable of bothBluetooth LE and sub-gigahertz broadcasting (or another longer-rangeradio band). While Bluetooth LE may be used for broadcasting to mobiledevices (or other Bluetooth LE capable devices), a larger LAN may beprovided between wireless beacons 114 and network gateway 710 by usingthe longer broadcast range provided by sub-gigahertz radio (or anotherlonger-range radio band). In some embodiments, network gateway 710 mayprovide a data collection network (e.g., a LAN for data collection) forcollecting data broadcast 712 by wireless beacons 114 (e.g., uniqueidentifiers, sensor data, etc.) and transmitting the data over acommunication network 714 (e.g., a WAN connected to the remote server).

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 7, method 806C includes anetwork gateway (e.g., network gateway 710) at a known retail location(e.g., retail location 200) receiving a data packet (e.g., databroadcast 712) from wireless beacon 114 on POP display 102 in 920. Thedata packet may include the unique identifier of the wireless beacon andthe POP display. The network gateway may provide the unique identifierto the remote server in response to receiving the data packet in 922. Insome embodiments, the network gateway provides the unique identifier tothe remote server over communication network 714 (e.g., cellularnetwork, WiFi network, or the Internet). In some embodiments, thenetwork gateway provides the unique identifier to the remote serverusing customer device 118. For example, the network gateway provides theunique identifier along with identifying/location information about thenetwork gateway to SDK 125 on customer device 118. SDK 125 may thenprovide this information to the remote server when customer device 118communicates with the remote server.

In 924, the remote server may associate the POP display having theunique identifier with the network gateway providing the uniqueidentifier and the retail location of the network gateway. Using thisassociation, the remote server may determine the retail location of thePOP display with the unique identifier because the retail location ofthe associated network gateway is known (e.g., the installation locationof the network gateway is known as described above). In someembodiments, the network gateway associates the POP display having theunique identifier with the retail location of the network gateway andprovides data about the association to the remote server, which thenstores information about the retail location of the POP display. Theretail location of the POP display having the unique identifierdetermined in 924 may be provided to method 800, shown in FIG. 4, to beused as the assessed retail location in 808.

In some embodiments, method 806C includes assessing a signal strengthbetween the POP display with the unique identifier and the networkgateway in 926. The assessed signal strength may be provided to theremote server along with the unique identifier in 922. The remote servermay use the assessed signal strength to determine a specific (orrelatively specific) location of the POP display within the retaillocation. For example, the exact location of the network gateway at theretail location may be known (e.g., in a server room at the retaillocation). The assessed signal strength may provide information that isused to estimate the distance between the POP display with the uniqueidentifier and the network gateway. From the estimated distance, thespecific location of the POP display within the retail location may bedetermined (e.g., estimated or approximated).

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart of an embodiment of method 806D used toassess a location of a POP display. Method 806D may be used to assessthe retail location of the POP display using interaction with customerdevice 118 and SDK 125 on the customer device. In 930, customer device118 may receive a packet (e.g., a data packet such as packet 700, shownin FIG. 2) from wireless beacon 114. The packet may include the uniqueidentifier for wireless beacon 114. In some embodiments, customer device118 may receive multiple packets from multiple wireless beacons, eachpacket having the unique identifier for the originating wireless beacon.

In 932, SDK 125 may combine the received unique identifier along withinformation about the retail location of customer device 118 from 933.In certain embodiments, the retail location of customer device 118 in933 is provided by another application (or entity) located on thecustomer device. For example, mobile application 127 (located insoftware package 122 on customer device 118, as shown in FIG. 1) mayprovide the retail location of the customer device. The manner in whichmobile application 127 determines the retail location of customer device118 may be unknown to SDK 125. For example, mobile application 127 maybe a retailer “app” that determines the retail location (e.g., storenumber) of customer device 118 through an unknown or proprietaryalgorithm. Regardless of the manner in which mobile application 127determines the retail location of customer device 118, SDK 125 mayreceive the retail location known by the mobile application in 933 andcombine this information with the unique identifiers for the wirelessbeacons.

In 934, SDK 125 may then provide the retail location of customer device118 along with the unique identifier to the remote server. In someembodiments, a time stamp from customer device 118 is also provided tothe remote server. In certain embodiments, SDK 125 provides uniqueidentifiers for a plurality of wireless beacons along with the retaillocation of customer device 118.

In 936, the remote server may assess or determine the (selected) retaillocation of wireless beacon 114 with the unique identifier byassociating the wireless beacon with the provided retail location ofcustomer device 118. If multiple unique identifiers are sent to theremote server, the remote server may determine the retail location ofeach of the wireless beacons with the unique identifiers by associatingthe retail location of customer device 118 with each wireless beacon.The retail location of the POP display determined in 936 (the POPdisplay having the wireless beacon with the unique identifier) may beprovided to method 800, shown in FIG. 4, to be used as the assessedretail location in 808.

Identification of the retail location of wireless beacon 114 by server126 through the interaction of the wireless beacon with customer device118 allows the wireless beacon's location to be dynamically cataloged bythe server and potentially other portions of the overall system,including the wireless beacon itself. Identification of the retaillocation by server 126 may be advantageous in that it does not requirethat the final destination of wireless beacon 114 and circuit board 104be known at the time of manufacture or distribution since its locationmay be determined without any external intervention after POP display102 containing the circuit board has been set up in its intended finallocation.

The above disclosed embodiments may be utilized to optimize embodimentsof a manufacturing supply chain associated with POP displays 102 andcircuit board 104. As noted above, the location of a given wirelessbeacon and the other wireless beacons that it may connect to need not beknown before the wireless beacon, or circuit board, is installed in itsfinal location. Current commercially available products, however, treatthe installation of wireless beacons as a network infrastructure projectand do not contemplate integrating wireless beacons into other systems(e.g., POP displays). Thus, for a given store, technicians typicallyinstall hard points to supply power and network connectivity for eachwireless beacon, which severely limits a store manager's flexibility inplacing the beacons. Additionally, once a wireless beacon is deployed ina location, moving the wireless beacon may require bringing in atechnician to disconnect and then rewire each wireless beacon in its newlocation. Location changes must also be accompanied by revisions to thedatabase that describes the placement of each wireless beacon. This modeof deployment is fundamentally incompatible with conventional POPdisplays (e.g., non-connected POP displays), which typically can bemoved around at will. If wireless beacons and their attendant power andnetworking requirements are installed in POP displays, then the POPdisplays may become inflexible infrastructure points without a systemthat allows for flexible movement and locating of the POP displays asdescribed herein.

As described herein, the embodiments of POP display system 100 and POPdisplay 102 with wireless beacon 114 may provide increased flexibilityfor the placement and movement of the POP displays because of themodular, ad hoc nature of the disclosed embodiments. POP display system100 may provide a flexible and easy to deploy system that does notrequire specialized technicians and/or expensive wiring. In certainembodiments, a store manager is able to simply assemble POP display 102and place the POP display in the store anywhere desired as if it was aconventional display.

Additionally, the disclosed modular POP display system 100 and methodsassociated with the system simplify the overall supply chain for POPdisplays. Traditionally, POP displays are manufactured in bulk at afactory and then sent to a distribution center where the displays mayremain in storage for months at a time before distribution to a finallocation. When incorporating wireless beacons, this creates a logisticalproblem as one would ideally like to know where a given wireless beaconwill end up (e.g., so the display can be programmed based on the finallocation). Current manufacturing supply chains, however, are notstructured to accommodate that level of granularity. Typically, largepallets of displays are manufactured, stored, and bulk distributed tostores en masse without regard to a specific display's journey. Thismethod is not a problem when a display simply contains a static displayand perhaps a coupon and/or a product holder. For POP displays thatinteract (e.g., dynamically interact), via wireless beacons, with acustomer device so that location, content, and customer specificinformation may be communicated between the customer device and a remoteserver, however, such distribution methods are problematic as theyrequire experienced and expensive technicians to install wireless beaconenabled displays at their known final location. Once installed, a humanmay manually configure each wireless beacon enabled display with itslocation and identification information, as well as record suchinformation for use in a database. The manual installation, however, maybe tedious, time consuming, and difficult to implement on a consistentbasis.

FIG. 9 depicts a flowchart of a manufacturing supply chain associatedwith POP displays 102. Supply chain 300 utilizes embodiments of POPdisplay system 100, POP display 102, and circuit board 104 disclosedherein that via their ad hoc nature, may be flexible and readilycompatible with existing manufacturing practices. In certainembodiments, large quantities of POP displays 102 may end up at a finaldisplay location without advanced planning and interaction between thePOP displays with circuit boards 104, customer devices (e.g., customerdevices 118), and a server (e.g., server 126) may provide aconfiguration to POP system 100 as needed.

In certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, circuit board 104 includesbattery 106. In some embodiments, battery 106 is a non-removable batteryor a permanently affixed battery. Battery 106 being a non-removablebattery may provide power savings in the context of the supply chain300, shown in FIG. 9. Non-removable batteries may be desirable in supplychain 300 because they are cheaper and are more reliable. For example,it may be more difficult for a permanently affixed battery to be jarredout of its connection as compared to a normal (removable) batterymounted in a typical holder. Additionally, another downside to removablebatteries is that they may have to be installed on site by the personnelwho set up POP display 102 with circuit board 104 in its final location.Such personnel may fail to install the batteries correctly or eveninstall the batteries at all, rendering POP display 102 useless for itsintended purpose.

A consideration in using a non-removable (e.g., permanent) battery asbattery 106, as shown in FIG. 1, is that, due to the fact that thebattery cannot be replaced, it is important to preserve battery life tomaximize the service life of circuit board 104. To increase batterylife, in certain embodiments, as shown in FIG. 1, circuit board 104includes switch 108. Switch 108 may be a switch such as a power jumperor functional equivalent (e.g., a dip switch). Switch 108 may provide aremovable connection between battery 106 and the rest of the circuitryin circuit board 104 (e.g., wireless beacon 114). Thus, no power isdrained from battery 106 when switch 108 is not installed or turned on.Not installing switch 108 allows circuit board 104 to be stored forextended lengths of time (e.g., approximately one year or greater)without reducing any useable power storage in battery 106.

As shown in FIG. 9, POP display 102 (shown in FIG. 1) is manufactured infactory 302. After manufacture in factory 302, POP display 102 may bemoved from the factory to distribution center 304. In certainembodiments, POP display 102 moves from factory 302 to distributioncenter 304 along with circuit board 104. Circuit board 104 may havebattery 106 disconnected from any power draining circuitry (e.g.,controller 112 and/or wireless beacon 114). For example, switch 108 maydisconnect power to power draining circuitry. At distribution center304, circuit board 104 (with deactivated circuitry) and POP display 102are received in 306. At 308, switch 108 is installed or turned on toprovide power from battery 106 to the rest of the circuitry in circuitboard 104 and wireless beacon 114 is activated. In certain embodiments,wireless beacon 114 is configured such that, upon its first activation,the wireless beacon scans for specific connections that are associatedwith its configuration mode.

The use of a power switch (e.g., switch 108) in circuit board 104 andsupply chain 300 provides several advantages. One advantage is thatswitch 108 ensures that battery 106 is disconnected at the time ofmanufacture of POP display 102 to extend the life of the battery.Another advantage is that the wireless beacon 114 is deactivated untilswitch 108 is connected. Deactivating wireless beacon 114 allowsdistribution center 304 to activate a small number of POP displays at atime in a configuration procedure discussed below. If, for example, thethousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of POP displays in a warehouse(e.g., distribution center 304) were active at the same time and theirwireless beacons were actively broadcasting and/or scanning, theresulting electronic cacophony could render all communication andconfiguration difficult or even impossible. Empirical testing has shownthat having more than 50 active beacons in close proximity may causesevere wireless interference problems. Thus, a distribution center fullof active beacons could be rendered completely useless. Furthermore,transportation rules and requirements often restrict the transmission ofelectromagnetic signals by shipped items. Thus, the ability to disablewireless broadcasts by the included beacons both after initialmanufacture and during distribution has the additional benefit offacilitating the transport of embodiments of POP displays 102 withwireless beacons 114.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to physically activate abattery at the time a circuit board is removed from its shippingcontainer. In such embodiments, an insulator may be placed betweenbattery terminals to turn the controller off. Such an insulator may betethered to the external shipping enclosure in such a way that thebattery insulator is pulled from between the terminals as the circuitboard is removed from the shipping enclosure. Removing the batteryinsulator may then activate the controller and the wireless beacon.

In certain embodiments, after wireless beacon 114 establishes aconnection in 308, variations of the wireless beacon's parameters areconfigured in controller 112 via software in 310. Controller 112 may beconfigured, for example, via the BLE connection made between wirelessbeacon 114 and a programmer device (e.g., a wireless programmingdevice). In certain embodiments, wireless beacons 114 are associatedwith a selected campaign in 310 (e.g., as part of step 802, shown inFIG. 4). During configuration in 310, time parameters may be set incontroller 112 such that wireless beacon 114 is able to determine andact upon a target start date of a (selected) campaign. For example,controller 112 and clock 113 may be configured with the current date andtime as well as the target date and time for the selected campaign tobegin. In certain embodiments, this process is simplified to absoluteamount of time between the time of configuration and the beginning ofthe selected campaign. Various other parameters may be set during theconfiguration in 310 as well.

In certain embodiments, during configuration 310, unique label 117,shown in FIG. 1, is scanned or otherwise identified. In someembodiments, unique label 117 is added to circuit board 104 beforearriving at distribution center 304. In some embodiments, unique label117 is added at distribution center 304. Scanning unique label 117 mayallow the unique label to be associated with wireless beacon 114 and itsunique identifier. For example, unique label 117 may be scanned and theunique label may be programmed (via the BLE connection) to be associatedwith the unique identifier for wireless beacon 114 and/or otherassociated data such as, but not limited to, an activation date orcampaign associated with circuit board 104 and the wireless beacon.Associating unique label 117 with wireless beacon 114 (and itsassociated data) allows information about the wireless beacon to beaccessed while the wireless beacon is asleep by scanning the uniquelabel. Unique label 117 may be scanned while wireless beacon 114 isasleep to obtain programmed information (e.g., campaign information oractivation time) and place circuit board 104 into a proper POP display(as described below) before the POP display is shipped to a finaldisplay location.

After configuration is complete in 310, the configuration applicationdisconnects from controller 112 and wireless beacon 114 (and circuitboard 104) may enter sleep mode 312. In sleep mode 312, wireless beacon114 may shut down its Bluetooth radio, and the circuitry in circuitboard 104 may enter a low power mode to conserve the batteries beforethe circuit board is installed onto POP display 102 and also while thePOP display is stored in advance of being shipped to a final location(e.g., a retail location). Thus, even though switch 108 has beenactivated in distribution center 304, the problem of having too manyactive Bluetooth radios (e.g., wireless beacons) in close proximity inthe distribution center is inhibited as each activated radio onlyremains active for a short period of time as configuration of thewireless beacon is conducted. Also, it is worth noting that the lowpower mode referred to above includes any control circuitry, such as amicrocontroller, not just the Bluetooth beacon itself. It will also beapparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that such circuitry may beimplemented in various layouts, such as in several discrete chips or oneintegrated chip.

After circuit board 104 and wireless beacon 114 enter sleep mode 312,the circuit board may be installed in POP display 102 in 313. Aftercircuit board 104 is installed, POP display 102 may be moved (e.g.,shipped or transported) in 314. POP display 102 may be moved to finaldisplay location 316, as shown in FIG. 9. Final display location 316 maybe, for example, a retail or shopping location for POP display 102 to belocated in front of customers to provide an interactive customerexperience. At final display location 316, POP display 102 may beassembled in 318 and placed in an operating location in 320. After beingplaced at the operating location in 320, when the configurationcircuitry (programmed in 310) determines that the target date and timefor the campaign has been reached, the circuitry awakens from its sleepstate at the configured time in 322. In 322, wireless beacon 114activates its wireless (e.g., Bluetooth) radio and campaign relatedoperations begin in 324.

As described above, the embodiment of supply chain 300 may provide asolution to the problem of how to build POP displays with wirelessbeacons in advance while not running down the batteries while thedisplays are being stored. Using supply chain 300 may also ensure thatthe associated radios are inactive while the POP display is being storedand transported. These aspects may be important when considering theoverall supply chain.

In some embodiments, POP display 102 includes a light sensor (e.g., oneof sensors 116, shown in FIG. 1, is a light sensor). In suchembodiments, the light sensor may be used to trigger activation of theradio only after the light sensor detects visible light level above athreshold and the campaign date has started. Using the light sensor totrigger activation may further conserve power by not turning the radioon if POP display 102 has not been unpacked or the store is closed andthe lights are off. The radio and some sensors, however, may not need tooperate under the same schedule or conditions. For example, certainsensors may be active even when POP display 102 is in low power mode.These sensors may be used to allow POP display 102 to determine whetherthe display is being transported or being set up at a final location.One skilled in the art will recognize that this permits one to selectwhat a skilled artisan deems to be the optimal tradeoff between batteryconsumption and situational awareness. Some embodiments may utilizeother sensors to determine whether the store is open or whetherpotential customers are nearby (e.g., proximity sensors may be used todetermine if customers are nearby). Information from these sensors mayalso be combined with the campaign start date to determine whether theradio should be activated. In some embodiments, one of sensors 116 is anaccelerometer. The accelerometer may be active when POP display 102 isin low power mode and may trigger activation of the radio when anymovement is registered by the accelerometer. If, however, a light sensordoes not detect a visible light level above the threshold and/or thecampaign date has not started, the activation of the radio may betemporary (e.g., only for a short, selected amount of time).

In some embodiments, POP display 102 (and POP display system 100) allowsfor the tracking of the deployment rate of POP displays at a retaillocation. FIG. 10 depicts a block diagram of an embodiment of aplurality of POP displays 102 at retail location 200. POP displays 102at retail location 200 are capable of communicating with each otherand/or with server 126. In certain embodiments, POP displays 102communicate with each other and provide information to a single POPdisplay (e.g., POP display 102′). POP display 102′ may then communicatewith server 126 to provide the information to the server, as shown inFIG. 10.

In some embodiments, server 126 detects information about the relativelocations of wireless beacons 114. For example, since each wirelessbeacon 114 is equipped with a unique identifier, server 126, upondetecting and determining the identity of one wireless beacon 114 incommunication range with another wireless beacon, may determine that thebeacons are associated with a specific store. In some embodiments,depending on the configured broadcast mode of wireless beacons 114,server 126 may communicate with wireless beacon 114′ to relayinformation to the wireless beacon and other wireless beacons 114 withincommunication range of wireless beacon 114′. In this way, a group ofbeacons may operate as an ad hoc distributed communication network,which is advantageous as this does not require that the network be setup and configured beforehand by a technician.

It is known in the industry that, on average, only a fraction of POPdisplays delivered to a store are actually deployed. In certainembodiments, however, wireless beacon 114 is capable of communicating,whether directly or indirectly, with server 126, as shown in FIGS. 1 and10. Thus, wireless beacon 114 may relay information gathered by sensors116 indicating that its POP display has been deployed. For example, ifPOP display 102 reaches its campaign start time but its light sensorindicates darkness for a prolonged period of time, it may be inferredthat the POP display was not deployed on a timely basis.

In some embodiments, data collected from sensors 116 and/or customerdevice 118 (and/or other sources) that is stored in information 130 onserver 126, shown in FIG. 1, may be used for historical analysis of theperformance of POP display 102. In some embodiments, the historicalanalysis data is correlated with saved data from wireless beacon 114 tofurther gauge customer engagement. For example, combining informationabout dwell time with the fact of whether the potential customer made apull request may be used to gauge customer engagement. In someembodiments, the historical data is correlated with third party data(e.g., retailer data such as purchase history, etc.). Correlating thehistorical data with third party data may provide further informationuseful to the retailer to enhance a customer's experience.

In some embodiments, various statistical analyses are utilized onhistorical data collected from POP display 102. Statistical analysesthat may be used include, but are not limited to, machine learning anddata mining techniques, set theory, multivariate statistics, and timeseries analyses. Examples of machine learning include deep learning,neural networks, support vector machines, random forests, decision treelearning, association rule learning, inductive logic, clustering,Bayesian networks, reinforcement learning, representation learning,similarity and metric learning, sparse dictionary learning, and geneticalgorithms. Examples of data mining, which is often coextensive withmachine learning, include spatial data mining, temporal data mining,senor data mining, pattern mining, and subject-based data mining. Insome embodiments, these techniques are used for aspects besideshistorical analysis. For example, smoothing techniques associated withsome types of temporal data mining may be used to filter a series ofRSSI signal strength values used in bump detection disclosed herein.

Examples of different types of data that may be collected an analyzedfor POP displays 102 are illustrated in FIGS. 11A-11G. FIG. 11Aillustrates an example of a campaign calendar. FIG. 11B illustrates anexample of an interface displaying various statistics related to POPdisplay deployment and sales. FIG. 11C illustrates an information screenrelated to the product associated with the POP display. FIG. 11Dillustrates an interface displaying national deployment information forPOP displays. FIG. 11E illustrates an interface displaying statedeployment information for POP displays. FIG. 11F illustrates aninterface displaying supply chain information. FIG. 11G illustrates aninterface displaying a sales analysis associated with the POP display.

In some embodiments, POP display 102 includes components or devices thatreduce the surrounding infrastructure requirements for supporting thePOP display. Specifically, POP display 102 may be equipped with wirelesstransmission functionality to transmit any recorded measurements orinformation derived therein as described above. This information may betransmitted to a network gateway (e.g., network gateway 710, shown inFIG. 2) located within or near the store (e.g., retail location 200,shown in FIG. 2). In certain embodiments, instead of a network gateway,an employee of the retailer or a POP display service provider may beequipped with a mobile device that contains an application adapted toconnect to POP display 102 and retrieve data from the point of purchasedisplay to be relayed to a server. This connection may be accomplishedutilizing the same wireless connection that is used for beaconfunctionality, or may be conducted by other standard wirelesstransmission protocols as described herein, e.g., IEEE 802.11. Thisminimizes the need for wireless transmission infrastructure to supportthe retrieval of information collected by the point of purchasedisplays.

In some embodiments, POP display system 100 utilizes the applicationalready installed on a potential customer's mobile device (e.g.,software package 122 on customer device 118) to relay the collectedinformation to a server (e.g., server 126). As shown in FIG. 1, POPdisplay 102 may connect with customer device 118 via the same wirelessconnection that enables beacon functionality (e.g., Bluetooth connectionbetween wireless beacon 114 and wireless transceiver 120A) and deliverthe data to the customer device. Customer device 118 may then transmitthe data to server 126 via wireless transceiver 120B or another wirelesstransceiver. Since transmission through customer device 118 may incur adata charge on the customer, the application may be configured to promptthe user for permission to do so. In some embodiments, the applicationmay offer the user some form of compensation for the use of their dataconnection. For example, a discount on some good or service in thestore. In this way, data can be moved to server 126 by users who arenormally just walking around the store and requires no specialinfrastructure. Additionally, the data to be transmitted may becompressed using standard techniques to minimize the amount of bandwidthconsumed, and the application (e.g., the SDK) may be configured to,under certain cases, delay the transfer of data over the mobile device'swireless network connection to the server if the network connection isnot over WiFi and/or the mobile device is not connected to an externalpower source. In other words, the mobile device may be directed to savethe data and wait until the customer is connected to a wireless networkwhere transmission of the data will not adversely impact the customer'swireless data plan or the mobile device's battery life.

In certain embodiments, one or more process steps described herein maybe performed by one or more processors (e.g., a computer processor)executing instructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readablemedium. For example, communication between POP display 102, customerdevice 118, server 126, and/or network gateway 710, shown in FIG. 1, mayhave one or more steps performed by one or more processors executinginstructions stored as program instructions in a computer readablestorage medium (e.g., a non-transitory computer readable storagemedium). In certain embodiments, controller 112, on POP display 102,software package 125, on customer device 118, server 126, and/or networkgateway 710 include program instructions in the computer readablestorage medium.

FIG. 12 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of exemplary computersystem 410. Exemplary computer system 410 may be used to implement oneor more embodiments described herein. In some embodiments, computersystem 410 is operable by a user to implement one or more embodimentsdescribed herein such as communication between POP display 102, customerdevice 118, server 126, and/or network gateway 710, shown in FIG. 1. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 12, computer system 410 includes processor 412,memory 414, and various peripheral devices 416. Processor 412 is coupledto memory 414 and peripheral devices 416. Processor 412 is configured toexecute instructions, including the instructions for communicationbetween POP display 102, customer device 118, server 126, and/or networkgateway 710, which may be in software. In various embodiments, processor412 may implement any desired instruction set (e.g. IntelArchitecture-32 (IA-32, also known as x86), IA-32 with 64 bitextensions, x86-64, PowerPC, Sparc, MIPS, ARM, IA-64, etc.). In someembodiments, computer system 410 may include more than one processor.Moreover, processor 412 may include one or more processors or one ormore processor cores.

Processor 412 may be coupled to memory 414 and peripheral devices 416 inany desired fashion. For example, in some embodiments, processor 412 maybe coupled to memory 414 and/or peripheral devices 416 via variousinterconnect. Alternatively or in addition, one or more bridge chips maybe used to coupled processor 412, memory 414, and peripheral devices416.

Memory 414 may comprise any type of memory system. For example, memory414 may comprise DRAM, and more particularly double data rate (DDR)SDRAM, RDRAM, etc. A memory controller may be included to interface tomemory 414, and/or processor 412 may include a memory controller. Memory414 may store the instructions to be executed by processor 412 duringuse, data to be operated upon by the processor during use, etc.

Peripheral devices 416 may represent any sort of hardware devices thatmay be included in computer system 410 or coupled thereto (e.g., storagedevices, optionally including computer accessible storage medium 500,shown in FIG. 13, other input/output (I/O) devices such as videohardware, audio hardware, user interface devices, networking hardware,etc.).

Turning now to FIG. 13, a block diagram of one embodiment of computeraccessible storage medium 500 including one or more data structuresrepresentative of POP display 102 (depicted in FIG. 1) and/or memorycache 124 (depicted in FIG. 1) included in an integrated circuit designand one or more code sequences representative of communication betweenPOP display 102, customer device 118, server 126, and/or network gateway710 (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2). Each code sequence may include one or moreinstructions, which when executed by a processor in a computer,implement the operations described for the corresponding code sequence.Generally speaking, a computer accessible storage medium may include anystorage media accessible by a computer during use to provideinstructions and/or data to the computer. For example, a computeraccessible storage medium may include non-transitory storage media suchas magnetic or optical media, e.g., disk (fixed or removable), tape,CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, or Blu-Ray. Storage mediamay further include volatile or non-volatile memory media such as RAM(e.g. synchronous dynamic RAM (SDRAM), Rambus DRAM (RDRAM), static RAM(SRAM), etc.), ROM, or Flash memory. The storage media may be physicallyincluded within the computer to which the storage media providesinstructions/data. Alternatively, the storage media may be connected tothe computer. For example, the storage media may be connected to thecomputer over a network or wireless link, such as network attachedstorage. The storage media may be connected through a peripheralinterface such as the Universal Serial Bus (USB). Generally, computeraccessible storage medium 500 may store data in a non-transitory manner,where non-transitory in this context may refer to not transmitting theinstructions/data on a signal. For example, non-transitory storage maybe volatile (and may lose the stored instructions/data in response to apower down) or non-volatile.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be realized in any of variousforms. For example some embodiments may be realized as acomputer-implemented method, a computer-readable memory medium, or acomputer system. Other embodiments may be realized using one or morecustom-designed hardware devices such as ASICs. Other embodiments may berealized using one or more programmable hardware elements such as FPGAs(field programmable gate arrays).

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable memory mediummay be configured so that it stores program instructions and/or data,where the program instructions, if executed by a computer system, causethe computer system to perform a method, e.g., any of a methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets.

In some embodiments, a wireless device (or wireless station) may beconfigured to include a processor (or a set of processors) and a memorymedium, where the memory medium stores program instructions, where theprocessor is configured to read and execute the program instructionsfrom the memory medium, where the program instructions are executable tocause the wireless device to implement any of the various methodembodiments described herein (or, any combination of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any subset of any of the methodembodiments described herein, or, any combination of such subsets). Thedevice may be realized in any of various forms.

Although specific embodiments have been described above, theseembodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the presentdisclosure, even where only a single embodiment is described withrespect to a particular feature. Examples of features provided in thedisclosure are intended to be illustrative rather than restrictiveunless stated otherwise. The above description is intended to cover suchalternatives, modifications, and equivalents as would be apparent to aperson skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

The scope of the present disclosure includes any feature or combinationof features disclosed herein (either explicitly or implicitly), or anygeneralization thereof, whether or not it mitigates any or all of theproblems addressed herein. Accordingly, new claims may be formulatedduring prosecution of this application (or an application claimingpriority thereto) to any such combination of features. In particular,with reference to the appended claims, features from dependent claimsmay be combined with those of the independent claims and features fromrespective independent claims may be combined in any appropriate mannerand not merely in the specific combinations enumerated in the appendedclaims.

Further modifications and alternative embodiments of various aspects ofthe embodiments described in this disclosure will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art in view of this description. Accordingly, thisdescription is to be construed as illustrative only and is for thepurpose of teaching those skilled in the art the general manner ofcarrying out the embodiments. It is to be understood that the forms ofthe embodiments shown and described herein are to be taken as thepresently preferred embodiments. Elements and materials may besubstituted for those illustrated and described herein, parts andprocesses may be reversed, and certain features of the embodiments maybe utilized independently, all as would be apparent to one skilled inthe art after having the benefit of this description. Changes may bemade in the elements described herein without departing from the spiritand scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A point of purchase (POP) display system,comprising: a plurality of POP displays located at a selected retaillocation; a plurality of activity sensors, wherein: a respectiveactivity sensor is coupled to a respective POP display, the respectiveactivity sensor measures and records a respective activity data in arespective vicinity of the respective POP display, the respectiveactivity data includes a respective activity measurement and arespective timestamp that the respective activity measurement occurred,the respective activity sensor includes a respective accelerometermounted to the respective POP display, and the respective activitymeasurement includes a respective accelerometer data of the respectiveaccelerometer, including a respective movement measurement of therespective POP display and the respective timestamp being when therespective movement measurement of the respective POP display occurred;a plurality of wireless beacons, wherein: a respective wireless beaconis coupled to the respective activity sensor, including the respectiveaccelerometer, and the respective POP display, a respective wirelessbeacon is associated with a respective unique identifier, the respectivewireless beacon transmits a respective plurality of activity datapackets of the respective activity sensor, and the respective pluralityof activity data packets include the respective activity measurement,the respective timestamp, and the respective unique identifier; and awireless collection device including a processor, a memory coupled tothe processor that stores instructions, and a wireless transceivercoupled to the processor, wherein execution of the instructions by theprocessor configures the wireless data collection device to implementfunctions to: receive, via the wireless transceiver, the respectiveplurality of activity data packets from each of the plurality ofwireless beacons, analyze a respective activity in the respectivevicinity of the respective POP display based on the respective pluralityof activity data packets received from the respective wireless beaconbased on the respective activity measurement, the respective timestamp,and the respective unique identifier, and in response to receiving therespective accelerometer data, the wireless data collection deviceanalyzes the respective activity in the respective vicinity of therespective POP display by determining that a product is added or removedfrom the respective POP display based on the respective accelerometerdata and the respective unique identifier.
 2. The POP display system ofclaim 1, wherein: a first activity sensor of the plurality of activitysensors includes a passive infrared sensor; and the respective activitymeasurement of the first activity sensor includes radiant heat emittedfrom a respective shopper.
 3. The POP display system of claim 2,wherein: the respective activity analyzed by the wireless datacollection device includes: (a) a respective dwell time for therespective shopper to stand in the respective vicinity of the respectivePOP display coupled to the first activity sensor; and (b) the respectiveactivity analyzed by the wireless data collection device includes anaverage dwell time per shopper to stand in the respective vicinity ofthe respective POP display coupled to the first activity sensor.
 4. ThePOP display system of claim 2, wherein: the respective activity analyzedby the wireless data collection device includes a number of shoppers towalk past the respective POP display coupled to the first activitysensor.
 5. The POP display system of claim 1, wherein: the respectiveactivity analyzed by the wireless collection device includes arespective POP deployment determination of whether the respective POPdisplay is properly deployed at a final display location or placed in astorage area at the selected retail location based on the respectiveactivity measurement, the respective timestamp, and the respectiveunique identifier; and the wireless collection device transmits, via thewireless transceiver, to a remote server the respective POP deploymentdetermination.
 6. The POP display system of claim 1, wherein: a firstactivity sensor of the plurality of activity sensors includes an activeinfrared sensor that emits infrared light; and the respective activitymeasurement of the first activity sensor includes the infrared lightreflected back from a respective shopper.
 7. The POP display system ofclaim 6, wherein: the respective activity analyzed by the wireless datacollection device includes a respective dwell time for the respectiveshopper to stand in the respective vicinity of the respective POPdisplay coupled to the first activity sensor.
 8. The POP display systemof claim 6, wherein: the respective activity analyzed by the wirelessdata collection device includes an average dwell time per shopper tostand in the respective vicinity of the respective POP display coupledto the first activity sensor.
 9. The POP display system of claim 6,wherein: the respective activity analyzed by the wireless datacollection device includes a number of shoppers to walk past therespective POP display coupled to the first activity sensor.
 10. The POPdisplay system of claim 1, wherein: a first activity sensor of theplurality of activity sensors includes an image based detection sensor;and the respective activity measurement of the first activity sensorincludes a detected image of a shopper.
 11. The POP display system ofclaim 10, wherein: the respective activity analyzed by the wireless datacollection device includes: (a) a respective dwell time for therespective shopper to stand in the respective vicinity of the respectivePOP display coupled to the first activity sensor; and (b) the respectiveactivity analyzed by the wireless data collection device includes anaverage dwell time per shopper to stand in the respective vicinity ofthe respective POP display coupled to the first activity sensor.
 12. ThePOP display system of claim 10, wherein: the respective activityanalyzed by the wireless data collection device includes a number ofshoppers to walk past the respective POP display coupled to the firstactivity sensor.
 13. The POP display system of claim 10, wherein theimage based detection sensor includes a camera.
 14. The POP displaysystem of claim 1, wherein: the respective activity sensor and therespective wireless beacon coupled to the respective POP display arelocated on at least one circuit board; the at least one circuit board isinstalled on the respective POP display; and each of the plurality ofwireless beacons transmits the respective plurality of activity datapackets by broadcast.
 15. The POP display system of claim 1, wherein therespective unique identifier is of the respective POP display, therespective activity sensor, or the respective wireless beacon.
 16. ThePOP display system of claim 1, wherein the wireless data collectiondevice is located at the selected retail location.
 17. The POP displaysystem of claim 16, wherein the wireless data collection device includesa network gateway.
 18. The POP display system of claim 1, wherein: therespective POP display is mounted on a respective freezer case door; andin response to receiving the respective plurality of activity datapackets, the wireless data collection device analyzes the respectiveactivity by determining that the respective freezer case door is openedor closed, a time duration that the respective door is opened or closed,and a respective number of times the respective freezer case door isopened or closed.